Key Takeaway: Don't wait to get drafted; draft yourself to do what you love.

The 2013 NFL Draft concluded over the weekend and some college football players were very happy that they fulfilled their lifelong dream of being drafted by an NFL team and getting a shot to play on Sundays. Unfortunately, there were many players who were left disappointed of not being drafted and now have a real long shot of fulfilling their dream of playing on Sundays.

NFL is often used as a metaphor for lot of things that can help you in politics, business, life and other things, but one metaphor that you want to avoid is the NFL draft. This reminds us of the days when corporations of government officials had all the power to pick people they wanted and all you could do was to hope and pray that you get picked

You don’t want to go through what you saw on a draft day. These outstanding college athletes had no control over which team picked them. They relinquished the power of choice to the NFL teams to determine their future of being a professional football player. They accepted the NFL’s rules. These tough, strong, smart athletes accepted NFL’s proposition of "take it or leave it." Since they wanted to be in the NFL so badly, they took it.

Do you want to play by other people’s rules so they might pick you or would you rather pick yourself so you get to play by your rules?

Many players who did not get drafted by the NFL have been playing football since childhood. They have put in their 10,000 hours to be considered bona fide experts (according to Malcolm Gladwell's theory of 10,000 hour rule in his book “Outliers: The Story of Success”), yet because there are so few positions available in the NFL, many of these college players will not become professionals and end up feeling like failures.

It does not have to be this way for you if you pick yourself to determine your success; you don’t want to give this power to someone else.

Lot of students who are in college have been studying from childhood, through high school and college and are still studying after college but still act like college football players waiting to be picked by some company to get a job. Many will be disappointed when there will be no one picking them for a job and will feel like failures.

What to do?

If you love what you want to do, then go do it. You don’t need others to pick you. Learn the skill well and contact companies directly yourself on how you can help them. It is not safe, but any time you do something unconventional it never is, otherwise everyone would be doing it. You have to condition yourself of picking yourself just like we have been conditioned over the years of letting others pick us.

If you want to succeed, define your own rules and pick yourself. When you try to do something that is uncomfortable, it is hard, but at least you will control your own destiny and enjoy what you are doing. If you stick to it, you can even end up making a good liveing doing it, too.

"If you're hoping that the HR people you sent your resume to are about to pick you, it's going to be a long wait. Once you understand that there are problems just waiting to be solved, once you realize that you have all the tools and all the permission you need, then opportunities to contribute abound.

No one is going to pick you. Pick yourself.”

The lesson to learn from the NFL Draft is that you want to have control over your future, you must, as Set Godin suggests, pick yourself. You don't want to give this power to anyone. Today, you don't have to.

Jay Oza is a founder and senior innovation business development consultant at 5ToolGroup, a company that specializes in helping startups and established firms bring innovation to market within 90 days through our unique 5Tool Methodology that integrates sales, marketing, partnerships, customer development and agile/lean methodology to enable frugal or ("Jugaad") innovation. We believe that to succeed today, you have to continuously look for ways to do lot more with lot less. This is the only way to win today!